The Scoop: Just Announced: Over the weekend, new IFBB Pro Zack Khan
won the Super-Heavyweight Class and Overall title at the UKBFF U.K. British Bodybuilding Championships in Nottingham. The 5'11", 275-pound beast defeated other tough Super-Heavies like Alvin "Biggie" Small and Darren "Daz" Ball. While Khan's lower-body conditioning needed a tad more tightening, his sheer size was too much of a force for the other Class winners -- Pat Warner, Shaun-Joseph Tavernier, Nana Manu and Lee Williams -- to wrestle the Overall title from him. Khan's victory earned him a long-awaited IFBB Pro card.

The "So What?": This year, the
UKBFF extended the event over the course of two days as opposed to the usual single day, separating the Prejudging Rounds and the Finals. This extension allowed the judges to analyze a thorough number of comparisons to arrive at their decisions as to who would join the ranks of IFBB Pro League athletes. As reported in "Andrew Oye's Pro-Muscle Report," James "Flex" Lewis won the contest in 2007, and IFBB Pro James Llewellin won in 2008.

About his journey, Khan explains, "I just started training at home after seeing guys like Arnold and Stallone, whose physiques I admired, and thought I'd like to look like that. When I started training at a local gym, after a year, people in the gym said you've got a good physique and you should compete. I declined because I felt I didn't want to compete I was just doing it for myself. The owner of the gym said, 'I am putting up a competition later in the year and I want you to compete.' I decided to do it and I won...I enjoyed it so much I never looked back."

Andrew Oye's Verdict: "King Khan," as he is known, is popular on the British bodybuilding scene -- the land that gave us greats like 6-time Mr. Olympia IFBB Pro Dorian Yates and up-and-comers like IFBB Pro Flex Lewis and IFBB Pro Troy Brown. As he ventures to the pro stage, it will be interesting to see if his popularity and physique translate to U.S. standards, and how he stacks up to competitors like IFBB Pro Jay Cutler, IFBB Pro Branch Warren, IFBB Pro Phil Heath and IFBB Pro Dennis Wolf at the biggest shows -- the Arnold Sports Festival's IFBB Pro Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic and Joe Weider's Olympia Weekend Championships.